


And We're Going to be Beautiful

by InterstellarBlue (nagi_schwarz)



Category: ASTRO (Band)
Genre: International Fanworks Day 2021, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29452650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/InterstellarBlue
Summary: Myungjun has plans for the team's Halloween costumes.In February.Or: Jinwoo comes home and is bombarded with an extended meta discussion about The Untamed.Did Wang Yibo-sunbae graduate with Bin and Dongmin? Who knows!Who was the True Villain in The Untamed?Would Xue Yang have grown up all right if someone had just given him some candy when he was a child?...and why does Minhyuk, of all people, even like The Untamed?(Of course Myungjun likes The Untamed. It's full ofdramaand pretty costumes.)(Dongmin should just be grateful he doesn't have to dress up as a girl.)
Relationships: Kim Myungjun | MJ/Park Minhyuk | Rocky
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	And We're Going to be Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: SO MANY spoilers for The Untamed if you haven't seen it.

“What are you doing?” Jinwoo asked, pausing just inside the door and kicking off his shoes.

Minhyuk was standing very still while Myungjun stood beside him wielding a measuring tape and pins with determined efficiency. 

In the background, some kind of Chinese period drama was playing, dramatic music sweeping over the den while the cameras panned over two men, one in black robes, one in white robes, standing atop a mountain. 

“I’m designing our Halloween costumes,” Myungjun said. 

Jinwoo blinked. “It’s February.”

“I’m making them myself. I wanted to get ahead of everything.” Myungjun turned back to Minhyuk. “Hold your arms out.”

Minhyuk obeyed, placid as a doll. 

“What are we being for Halloween, exactly?” Jinwoo asked. 

“We’re being characters from The Untamed,” Myungjun said. 

Jinwoo blinked. “Oh?”

Myungjun nodded. “It’s an epic story of family and friendship and good and evil. Also the lead characters are beautiful, and we’re going to be beautiful.”

“We who?” Jinwoo padded into the kitchenette for a drink. 

“I’m going to be Wei Ying, and Minhyuk is going to be Lan Zhan.”

“Wasn’t the guy who played Lan Zhan in Bin and Dongmin’s class at school?” Minhyuk asked. 

“Quiet,” Myungjun said. “Keep your head up so I get the length right. Keep your posture. You know better. You were a ballet dancer.”

Jinwoo peered at the television screen. “That’s a Chinese drama?”

“Wang Yibo-sunbae was in Uniq,” Myungjun said breezily. 

“How come you two get to be the main characters?” Jinwoo asked. 

“Wei Ying is loud and smiles a lot,” Bin said from the couch. 

“Fair enough,” Jinwoo said. 

“Lan Zhan is an excellent martial artist, he never smiles, and he doesn’t drink,” Bin continued. 

“That does sound like Minhyuk,” Jinwoo admitted. He found a bottle of water and plopped down on the couch beside Bin. 

The credits were rolling. “What about the rest of us?”

“You get to be Lan Xichen, Lan Zhan’s older brother. He’s known for his endless patience,” Myungjun said. 

“Sure,” Jinwoo said flatly. 

Minhyuk added, “He’s also notoriously handsome.”

Jinwoo perked up. “Okay.”

“We’ll all need hair extensions,” Minhyuk added.

Jinwoo made a face, but he’d go along with it. The costumes did look really cool and flowy. 

“What about me?” Sanha asked. 

“You get to be Wen Ning, the Ghost General,” Myungjun said. “Because he’s the baby. But also he’s terrifying.”

Sanha cheered. “All right.”

“I can do your zombie makeup,” Myungjun said confidently. 

“Hang on, zombie?” Sanha protested. 

“What about me?” Bin asked. 

“You get to be Jiang Cheng, because he yells a lot, and also he has a whip, and the fans will love to see you with a whip, and he wears a lot of purple,” Myungjun said. 

Bin looked dubious. “I don’t yell a lot. And Jiang Cheng was always second best.”

Minhyuk said, “He’s Wei Ying’s brother and loves him a lot and sometimes doesn’t believe in himself, but when it mattered most he did what needed to be done and sacrificed himself for others.”

Bin sobered. “Oh,” he said softly. “True.”

Dongmin said, “Shouldn’t I be Lan Zhan? And then Myungjun can be Lan Sizhui. My son.” 

He plopped onto the couch beside Bin, who smiled at him. 

“You should be Jiang Yanli, because everyone agrees she’s perfect,” Myungjun said. 

Dongmin spluttered.  _ “She?” _

“Everyone does agree you’re perfect though,” Jinwoo said, because he couldn’t resist watching Dongmin splutter more. 

Minhyuk said, “He could be Xiao Xingchen, tragically beautiful in white and the blindfold.” And then he grinned wickedly. “Or he could be Nie Huaisang, the best actor ever.”

“That would be a great pun,” Myungjun admitted. 

“But Nie Huaisang tricked Lan Xichen into stabbing the love of his life and was arguably the true villain, more villainous than Jin Guangyao, and I don’t think that fits Dongmin at all,” Bin said. “I think Dongmin would be really beautiful as Xiao Xingchen.”

Jinwoo stared at his teammates. “How did any of you have time to binge a whole Chinese drama? Those are usually way longer than Korean dramas.”

“The Untamed is fifty episodes,” Myungjun said serenely. “This is our third rewatch.”

Jinwoo stared at him. 

“I read the webtoon,” Bin said. 

“It’s really popular internationally,” Dongmin said. “I read some articles about it but I haven’t actually watched it. Bin — Wang Yibo was in our grade at school, but I can’t remember if he graduated with us.”

“Because graduation was right before debut,” Bin said. “Everything was a blur.”

“Yeah. You forgot my birthday that year,” Minhyuk said.

“I can’t believe you haven’t let that go,” Sanha said. 

Myungjun patted Minhyuk’s arm. “He was a teenager at the time. Teenagers are sensitive. It’s fine.”

“We debuted two days before your birthday. I don’t think anyone really remembers anything from that entire week,” Sanha said. He frowned at Myungjun. “What’s this about me being a zombie?”

“The cutest zombie ever,” Myungjun said. 

“Like Warm Bodies?”

“Better than Warm Bodies,” Myungjun said. “Wen Ning was the biggest and most ripped out of everyone.”

“Then shouldn’t Bin be Wen Ning?” Sanha asked. 

“But Wen Ning was the baby,” Myungjun said firmly. “He had to be protected at all costs. His sister died protecting him.”

“She must not have done a good job, if he got turned into a zombie,” Sanha said.

“He was a good zombie,” Minhyuk said firmly.

Myungjun finished measuring Minhyuk and pinning pieces of tissue paper on him. “I think you’ll look amazing. Once your robe is sewn, it’ll be easy to make robes for everyone else, since the basic pattern will be the same. The harder part will be getting the right fabric and accessories, but I’m sure it can be done. It’ll take time to source the weapons. Musical instruments will be easier, I think.”

“Weapons?” Sanha perked up.

“Swords,” Myungjun said.

“We’re going to look amazing for Halloween,” Sanha said.

Jinwoo nodded and watched as Netflix rolled back around to the first episode. The credits were really pretty, and he liked the music. Then he looked at Myungjun, who was carefully unpinning Minhyuk from the tissue paper costume pattern.

“Wait a second. You said I was going to be Lan Xichen, right?”

Myungjun nodded.

“Didn’t you also say that someone tricked Lan Xichen into killing the love of his life?”

Myungjun nodded. “It was very tragic. Debate still rages as to whether Jin Guangyao genuinely loved Lan Xichen or would have eventually turned on him had circumstances demanded it.”

“I — why would you want me to be that character?” Jinwoo demanded.

“Because,” Minhyuk said, “he saw the best in the people he loved, even if sometimes it got the better of him.”

“Come to think of it,” Myungjun said, “Xiao Xingchen was also tricked into killing the love of his life.”

“Hang on,” Dongmin protested.

“Yeah, but Xue Yang wasn’t nearly as evil as Jin Guangyao,” Minhyuk said. “He had a very terrible childhood.”

“So did Jin Guangyao,” Myungjun said.

“Yeah, but Xue Yang was never really given a chance to rehabilitate, not like Jin Guangyao was,” Minhyuk said.

Myungjun shook his head pityingly, carefully folding the pattern pieces. “If only he’d been given some candy as a child.”

“Chronic food deprivation in childhood is no joke,” Minhyuk insisted. “Even if you grow up and are no longer food insecure, the memory of food insecurity affects you well into adulthood. I’ve read about it.”

Dongmin nodded, but then he shook his head. “Go back to the part where my character was tricked into killing the love of his life.”

“It’s not his fault,” Myungjun said. “Xiao Xingchen was blind, and Song Lan had had his tongue cut out.”

Dongmin stared at him.

Jinwoo stared at him.

“It was really tragic,” Bin said. “But heartbreaking. Also I think Xue Yang kind of rehabilitated in his own way. Once Xiao Xingchen realized what he’d done, he tried to kill himself, and Xue Yang was so overcome with grief — he’d fallen in love with Xiao Xingchen, after all — that he went to extreme lengths to try to repair Xiao Xingchen’s soul and bring him back. It was twisted but beautiful, in a broken sort of way. Like Xue Yang. If a psychopath could ever be in love, Xue Yang was.”

“And you  _ liked _ this show enough to rewatch it three times and make us dress up as the characters for Halloween?” Jinwoo asked.

“Minhyuk and I are learning the theme song so we can sing a cover,” Myungjun said. “Chinese is hard, but Minhyuk said he’s going to reach out to Ten from NCT and see if he can get some pointers.”

“Right,” Dongmin said faintly.

Jinwoo watched the opening epic battle scene of the drama and said, “The costumes are really fancy, though. We’ll look pretty good.”

Myungjun smiled and swept out of the room with his delicate tissue paper pattern, tape measure, and pincushion in hand, and Minhyuk settled down on the loveseat beside Sanha.

“Where’s my character?” Sanha asked.

“We won’t see Wen Ning in this opening sequence,” Minhyuk said. “But look — there’s Bin’s character, in the purple. And there’s my character, in the white. And Jinwoo’s character, also in white. And Myungjun’s character, in black.”

Sanha’s mouth dropped open.  _ “Heol.  _ Did Bin’s character just  _ kill _ Myungjun’s character?”

“Yeah,” Minhyuk said. “They’re brothers. It’s so sad.”

“Your character looks really sad too.”

“Because they’re best friends,” Minhyuk said.

Sanha said, “I’ve  _ told _ people Bin is scary, and no one believes me.”

“There’s a lot of history to that whole event,” Minhyuk said. “Now watch.”

Dongmin shook his head and hopped off the couch, headed into his room to read a book.

Jinwoo headed into his own room to fire up his laptop and work on a song he’d been trying to write for a while. He made good progress, but once he needed a break, he paused and checked a few articles about the show The Untamed.

It was indeed wildly popular, had made a wave for Chinese dramas like Korean dramas had had a wave back in the mid-2000s.

And then Jinwoo read something he hadn’t realized: the drama was based on a book, and in the book, the two main characters were lovers. Myungjun and Minhyuk had described them as best friends, but in the book they were lovers, were described as soulmates, and even in the television show had called each other by a Chinese word that could be translated as either best friends or soulmates.

Jinwoo knew BL webtoons were popular online, and BL dramas were popular in Japan and Thailand, and a few of them had been made in Korea, because one of the actors at his agency had starred in one, so that wasn’t really a surprise, but —

But then he remembered what Minhyuk and Myungjun had said about the two characters who’d been tricked into killing the loves of their lives.

The loves of their lives who were men.

Would their agency really let them dress up as characters from this drama for Halloween? Why was Myungjun so obsessed with this drama? 

Well, Myungjun did like pretty costumes and dramatic things, and this drama was full of, well, drama, the kind of drama that came out of operas and epic tales and myths, so maybe that was no surprise.

Why did  _ Minhyuk _ like this kind of drama? He usually wasn’t much for historical dramas, and by all accounts the martial arts sequences in the drama weren’t really much to write home about, although the two male leads in the drama were idols and so their dance skill lent them some grace in their fight sequences.

Jinwoo closed his laptop and set it aside, then pushed himself to his feet and headed out of the room he shared with Bin.

Sanha had taken over the television in the den and was playing video games with his laptop hooked up to the television.

“Where is everyone?” Jinwoo asked.

“Bin went to the gym to work out. Dongmin’s still in his room reading. Myungjun might be in the bedroom sewing. Not sure about Minhyuk.” Sanha shrugged. He, Myungjun, and Minhyuk shared the biggest room.

Dongmin had a private room.

Jinwoo poked his head into Dongmin’s room, and sure enough, Dongmin was sprawled on his bed reading. Dongmin glanced up and smiled, assured Jinwoo that he wasn’t hungry, and kept on reading.

Then Jinwoo went and peeked into the big bedroom and —

Oh. 

Myungjun and Minhyuk were curled on Myungjun’s bed, wrapped around each other and talking softly.

All of them were close, of a necessity, because they’d lived in dorms together for years and trained together for years, and some nights they slept together, like the time Bin and Minhyuk made a poor choice and watched a television program about haunted places around the country; they’d shared a bed because they were too afraid to sleep alone.

But this was different. Minhyuk and Myungjun were gazing into each other’s eyes and smiling, and Myungjun reached up, brushed a lock of hair back from Minhyuk’s eyes — Minhyuk’s hair had been getting long these days — and then Minhyuk leaned in and kissed Myungjun and —

Jinwoo ducked out before either of them noticed him.

Well, perhaps that explained Minhyuk’s adoration of the drama. For all that Minhyuk said little and tended to be the one people perceived as expressionless and emotionless, he was passionate and affectionate, and a deep and abiding love story about a boy who was quiet and maybe a little repressed and a boy who was loud and outgoing might appeal to Minhyuk in a special way.

So.

Jinwoo would convince management to let them dress up extravagantly for Halloween, when Halloween finally arrived.

Dongmin should just be grateful he didn’t have to dress up as a girl anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for IFD 2021, and one of my favorite but very small ships (so small it's a tugboat).
> 
> Also it's always been a tradition to write my characters being fans of something for IFD, so this is it!


End file.
